Chad Johnson

Chad Johnson, a former Deputy Attorney General for the State of New York, is Managing Partner of the Firm’s Manhattan office. Chad’s background includes the rare combination of decades as a securities fraud prosecutor, as a defense lawyer, and as a plaintiffs’ lawyer. Chad has been litigating securities fraud cases and fiduciary duty actions for over 30 years. Chad is one of the leaders of the Firm’s Delaware Practice Group. Chad’s cases in the private sector have recovered more than $9 billion for investors.

Chad served as Deputy Attorney General for the State of New York and as the head of New York securities fraud unit. As a senior member of the Attorney General’s Office for the State of New York, Chad pursued securities cases against Wall Street fraudsters. While Deputy Attorney General for the State of New York and Chief of the New York Investor Protection Bureau, Chad helped recover $16.65 billion from Bank of America and $13 billion from JP Morgan Chase for toxic residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) created and sold by those banks.

In the private sector, Chad represents some of the world’s largest and most sophisticated asset managers, public pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds. Chad also represents whistleblowers and individual investors.

Chad’s cases have resulted in some of the largest recoveries on record for shareholders. This includes recent recoveries of $1 billion in the Dell Class V litigation, $122 million recovered in the Viacom stockholders litigation, and $100 million recovered in the Pattern Energy stockholders litigation – all of which were litigated in the Delaware Court of Chancery. Chad also has led securities cases in federal courts across the country that have resulted in significant recoveries for shareholders, including: the WorldCom securities litigation (more than $6 billion recovered for shareholders); the Wachovia securities litigation ($627 million recovered for shareholders); the Williams securities litigation ($311 million recovered for shareholders); and the Washington Mutual securities litigation ($208 million recovered for shareholders).

Among other cases he is currently handling, Chad is helping to lead the Boeing securities litigation pending in the Northern District of Virginia concerning years of false and misleading statements made by Boeing and its top executives regarding the Company's supposed safety practices and other crucial matters.

Chad has successfully tried cases in federal and state courts, in the Delaware Court of Chancery, and in arbitration tribunals in the United States and overseas. Chad also advises institutional and other investors about how best to enforce their rights as shareholders in the United States and abroad.

Before joining Robbins Geller, Chad was a partner with Quinn Emanuel where he was the Chair of that firm’s Institutional Investor Litigation Practice. Earlier in his career, Chad was a partner with Latham & Watkins, where he defended companies and corporate executives in securities and fiduciary duty cases.

Chad grew up in Michigan and South Dakota and earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and his law degree from Harvard Law School.

Harvard Law School, J.D., cum laude 

• President of the Harvard Law School Forum

University of Michigan, B.A., Political Science 

• High Distinction
• Angell Scholar

• State of New York
• State of Illinois
• District of Columbia
• United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, Fourth, Ninth, Tenth, and Federal Circuits 
• United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York
• United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan

Notable Cases